“All the world’s a stage,” and even moreso with the rise of the Internet, online advertising and social networking. While there is no American “right to privacy” in the Constitution, there are limits to what we want companies, publishers and advertisers to do with our personal information. Do we want advertisers to serve ads based on our web surfing habits? Should we be able to opt out from that kind of tracking? How would that work? The U.S. government — including the FTC, Commerce Department and Congress — is considering more regulation, while the industry tries self-regulation…again. While MediaShift gave a nice guide to online privacy a couple years back, the time is right to give an in-depth look at online privacy in the age of the always-on social web.
All the Online Privacy Posts
> Will U.S. Government Crack the Whip on Online Privacy? by Jonathan Peters
> Timeline: Facebook’s Stormy Relationship with Privacy by Corbin Hiar
> 8 Ways Publishers Can Protect Users’ Privacy by Dorian Benkoil
> 5Across: Online Privacy and the ‘Do Not Track’ Debate with Yahoo’s Anne Toth, EFF’s Lee Tien, California Office of Privacy Protection’s Joanne McNabb, CNET’s Declan McCullagh and Stanford’s Ryan Calo. Hosted by Mark Glaser.
> On Facebook and Online, Privacy Is Only an Illusion by Mya Frazier
> WSJ Series Inspires ‘Do Not Track’ Bill From Rep. Jackie Speier by Mark Glaser
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What do you think about our series? Did we miss anything? Share your thoughts on how you protect your privacy online and whether you think there should be more laws to protect your privacy.
Mark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the Online Publishers Association. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter @mediatwit.